12/16/20

Journey to the Moon (Buddah, 1969)

Here is a fun record that I found this week, and transferred for your enjoyment.  On the (lunar) surface, it appears to be a moon landing documentary, of which there were several issued in 1969.  This is true, but it's the only one that I know of that presents the story interspersed with some interesting rock music, here credited to a group called "Sound of Genesis," (no, nothing to do with Genesis).  In reality, I'm sure this was a conglomerate of studio musicians, but being 1969, there is plenty of electric sitar and synthesizer action to keep you entertained.  

You could make the argument that this record has something of an identity crisis; there is narrative, audio clips, instrumental music, and, sometimes, everything all at once.  However, as someone who has sat through most all of these Moon Fever albums, I have to say this was the most enjoyable of them all.

A couple of trivial factoids for your enjoyment:  
1) The track entitled "Lunar Landing: Moon Plaque" is presented on the front cover as "Moon Plague"! That would have been an interesting direction, indeed!
2) The track "Nineteen Ninety-Nine" was co-written by a young Daryll Hall.
3) The opening track was released as a single, but was credited only to "Genesis" (The more famous Genesis did of course exist at this time, and issued their first album that same year.) Enjoy!

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